That image came to mind early this month, when President Donald J. Trump gave Mexico an ultimatum to stop the northward flow of narcotics. “And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”Blaming Mexico for the American drug problem and then coercing it to act is a tactic that dates back to President Richard Nixon. While drugs do flow through Mexico, they also flow throughout the United States, feeding one of the biggest drug markets on the planet. If the U.S. government fails to halt the river of narcotics inside its own territory, how can it expect Mexico to succeed? And while you can find open air drug markets in several American cities, the United States arrests millions on drug charges.

Source: New York Times April 15, 2019 09:56 UTC